State Police seek 39 new jobs to handle gun law workload

Published 12:26 am, Sunday, May 19, 2013

HARTFORD -- State police are seeking 39 additional workers -- at a cost of $2.6 million -- to handle an avalanche of new duties brought on by gun laws passed after the Newtown school massacre.

The request for additional personnel comes at a time when most state agencies are seeing no staff increases and are generally making do with less.

Taxpayers would cover most of the $1.9 million in wages and $700,000 in fringe benefits needed to pay civilian employees to process paperwork for background checks, gun registries and permits established under the nation's toughest gun legislation.

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Staffing requestNew personnel requested by State Police to handle the workload created by the state's new gun law.

The positions include office assistants, processing technicians, analysts and identification technicians, according to a list provided by the state Office of Policy and Management.

"It's a substantial amount of work that needs to be entered into the system," said Lt. J. Paul Vance, the state police spokesman. "There is a lot of work."

After the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which took the lives of 20 children and six adults, the General Assembly passed new laws requiring all gun purchasers to undergo background checks. Starting in October, buyers will need eligibility certificates to purchase ammunition and by July 2014 they will need the certificates to purchase long guns. Military style assault weapons and magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds are now banned and existing ones must be registered with the state. A gun offender registry is also being created.

All of that means additional work for the state police, which is already facing a backlog because of an unexpected rush to purchase weapons as the General Assembly considered gun controls.

Administrators recently told a legislative committee that as of the end of last year state police had 1,000 gun transactions to log into its system. That number has now swelled to 62,000.

There are also 2,720 sets of fingerprints to be processed for pistol permits, along with 9,326 applications.

Vance said state police have an overall backlog of 4,800 fingerprint cards to enter into the system. He said staff can now process about 250 cards a day.

State Police Sgt. Andrew Matthews, president of the Connecticut State Police Union, said the staffing request shows administrators are following a pattern of replacing sworn troopers at the firearms licensing unit with civilians.

"They have an objective to remove all sworn officers from the unit," Matthews said. "But there are things civilian staff can't do. They can't seize weapons and conduct investigations. They can't be in charge of the vault, where they keep seized weapons."

Just as the workload is increasing, Matthews said, state police administrators have reduced the statewide firearms task force to only one officer.

"Should we not have a task force of 10 to 20 troopers to make sure people comply with the law?" he asked.

The request for more civilian workers is under negotiation with the Malloy administration and will likely be resolved as the Legislature and the governor settle on a new two-year state budget, which also involves covering ongoing deficits, said Mike Lawlor, undersecretary for criminal justice at the Office of Policy and Management.

"Right now the range is the 11 positions the Legislature recommended and the 39 state police say are necessary," Lawlor said. "It will be some number between 11 and 39 positions."

He said there are numerous options beyond adding staff to fulfill the obligations and ensure that gun buyers are not unduly delayed or standing in long lines at a state police office.

"Our goal is to make this as smooth and quick as possible," Lawlor said, adding options include using websites to apply for permits and to register weapons, along with software to log data. "There are ways to do this that are more effective."

He noted that applications for carry permits have more than doubled, from 1,000 a month to nearly 4,000.

"There has been an uptick in people seeking carry permits," Lawlor said. "It may be that the wave is cresting. We just don't know."

State Rep. Mary Mushinsky, D- Wallingford and a co-chair of the Program, Review and Investigations Committee, said any decision on extra personnel for state police will hinge on the budget debate and whether lawmakers agree to increase the state spending cap.

"If not, it's a moot point," Mushinsky said. "Budget negotiations are still continuing and I can't tell you how that will play out. There are a number of worthy causes competing for personnel and state dollars."

Reuben Bradford, commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, said data entry "is an administrative function that can be handled by civilian staff and does not require additional sworn officers."

Bradford said state police are keeping up with background checks but other paperwork is behind. He attributed the backlog to an "unprecedented number of weapons purchases that were made in anticipation of a change in law."

Some of the cost of the gun bill will be defrayed by $35 fees for eligibility certificates to purchase guns and ammo, but the remainder will ultimately be borne by taxpayers.

When the gun laws were passed in April, the Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated the legislation would cost up to $17 million through the 2015 fiscal year, including more than $4 million for state police.